"Bruce Willett, !Live From Chile!!"

¡Disculpe por mi inglés! ¡Castellano vendra pronto!

Last Friday went to a University Black Tie party. Fotos to come later. It was the 40th anniversary of the Universidad de Magellanes. I work at the university, so I went. Mostly the University higher ups but wine, women and dancing so it was a fun time. I am working in the electrical engineering dept, even though many are engineers, they are engineer types but very friendly. Bedrich, my office mate is a crazy Croat and an electrical engineer. THe CNN, BBC, NY Times, Outside Magazine, NPR have interviewed him over the past month over this ozone thing. Saturday at the local humane society and Sun a hike with Paola and Rocky.

Lots of gringos in and out of the university of late. A crazy retired journalist/engineer from NY has been around the office, studying the ozone, another from the US Dept of Energy Denver working on Rural Electrification, a NY Times journalist doing an article on the Trillium forest controversy. Just got off the phone with a writer from Outside Magazine from NYS, wants to come down here and cover our project in January. Coming home on the 15th, but thinking about coming back down in January. Too many interesting projects down here. Have 2 more up north and putting in volunteer time with a good group at the humane society down here too. Spanish is getting better all the time. Can't wait to see everybody when I come home.

October 25, 2000

Seems like I am always hiking, camping, traveling and playing but really, realy I do work a lot. Both for the Gondwana GIS project and the La Protectora de Animales. Anyway, just back from another hiking/camping trip up to the Torres Del Paine National Park. A 3 hour bus ride through mountains, forest and pampas to Puerto Natales another port town down here in Chilean Patagonia. Then another 3 hours by another bus, past huge estancias with thousands of cattle and sheep to the park. Last Thursday headed to the frontier of Argentina for another change to my tourist card. Every three months, I cross the border to renew my card. Four official stamps and a five mile run between border stations, through forests and past mine fields, a nice run really. Chile and Argentina almost went to war in 82 over a border despute, so a few mine fields still exist. Friday at 7, Sandro, Paola, Katrin, Nelson and I headed into the park. The tourist season hast just begun but it is still mellow. We bumped into many from England, Australia, France, Spain and Isreal. Prince William (son of Charles and Diana) was also in the Park. He has been in Chile to past month on a volunteer/camping holiday. A couple of good days of sun, wind and a bit of snow. Sun is not a healthy thing down here. Big problems with the Ozone Hole. I did get burned, even with hat, sunglasses and sunblock. We are having danger readings at 11 and 12 on a scale of 1-15.

Ocober 15, 2000

Hi! Wow, my allergies are really bothering me today and I took a Claritin D 2 hours ago.

I recently finished a book "The Wilds of Patagonia" by Swedish explorer Karl Scottsberg. Swedish expedition by a group of Swedes who spent 2 years exploring Patagonia - really interesting. The Swedes also a several glaciar studies going on down here and many glaciars have Sedish names. They also have a Swedish embassy here, which I will visit. Went out dancing with friends Friday night, came home at 4:30 and went to bed at 5:00. The sun was already coming up. People in Chile think I am lazy because I go to bed so early. I just cannot stay up till 8:00 in the morning like I did in college. Sat got up as early as possible and worked all day at "La Protectora", the local humane society, Saturday. Met up with people from the Lawrence Gould a US Antartic ship this weekend, all from San Diego. Went for a hike with Nelson, Sandro, And the dogs Rocky and Carlito. love bruce

October 8, 2000

Just back from another ski/hiking trip down the coast a bit and into the mountains. Biked down with a friend s dog "Rocky", the crazy Siberian again. Headed down only about 15 miles, but with skis, poles, boots a backpack and a dog, it felt like more. Rocky, the sled dog was pulling me, though sometimes across the road so he could say "hi" to the dogs that were attacking us. Headed into the mountains on a dirt road which was also the same as the new sanitary landfill. Camped out of the edge of the snow line and then skied in. The interior is just like the Upstate NY ADks. Dominant hardwood beech trees(lenga)and lots of snow. Rocky made a lot of noise the first night when the horses from the local estancia 2 miles away, came to see what we were up too. Then a day later, the dogs came at 5:00 in the morning and Rocky got into a brawl, a ski boot thrown at them broke it up, but it took a few minutes to wake up and extract myself from the sleeping bag and tent Gone only 4 days, but it was beautiful, remote and surprisingly good weather for winter/spring. A few hours of snow, a lot of snow on the ground, and lots of dangerous sun.

I am often called (Gringo poco loco or Gringo mucho poco loco) a gringo who is a little crazy and a gringo is a little lot crazy. Poco loco and mucho poco loco came from my using these words so often. People really use Gringo down here, not in a bad way though. In Temuco, I am often called "The Gringo".

An interesting place, Punta Arenas is. The turn of the century was an important time for this port city. Ships from all over the world and wool barons dominated. Wool and gas are still important, but the Panama Canal took away the need for ships to pass Punta Arenas. Still many internation ships pass through. The summer tourists from all over the world pass through and this is a jump off for Antarctic explorers. The city has many beautiful old homes built by the wealthy barons back at the turn of the Century. Punta Arenas also has a nice downtown center, with a plaza, library, international port, interesting homes and nice people.

At times, it is frustrating not to be able to understand and communicate well in the language. The hours here are crazy. Siesta runs from approximately 12:30 - 3:30. Many stores, most offices and even restaurants are closed, really, so the owners can go home for lunch. My Spanish getting better, though still rough Some even have the nerve to say speak like Tarzan. But it is getting better, although very slowly. I still have not mastered verbs and pronunciation. Verbs need to be conjugated, so a verb like run can have 18 different ways to say it. On another note, making friends and acquaintances has been relatively easy. I've gotten to know a lot of interesting people, both men and women and should have some friendships after I leave. I now have sets of friends (chicas) in Santiago, Temuco, Punta Arenas and spread out in other areas. Though I don't have a serious girlfriend, Margarita is special and I have many girlfriends (chicas).

I am working on two main projects and have some others coming up. This one in Punta Arenas is a forest conservation project involving several Chilean and International organizations, a Washington State logging company, lots of field work and lots of politics. Funding is from a number of foundations including now Espri and Patagonia Sportware. Tierra Del Fuego, where our project is, is very beautiful and interesting, a combination of tree-less, semi-barren pompas with estancias (ranches) hundreds of square miles in size, containing tens of thousand sheep and cattle, with friendly owners and workers. Nelson Sanchez, another on the project, knows many of the owners so we often stay at or stop into the many estancias in Tierra Del Fuego. The other part contains lush primitive forests, with huge trees, majestic snowcapped mountains, rushing cold rivers and isolated lakes. Though the project is very interesting, it is also very disorganized. A lot of people working on it but not communicating together.

The other project with Foundacion Chol Chol in Temuco is much more organized. They are a small foundation that work with the poor Mapuche farmers and know exactly what they need in technology. There, I have been setting up a GIS database for soils, tree plantations and property owners. Also teaching the foresters and agronomists to use GIS. Eighteen people work for the organization, lots of laughs especially with my Spanish but at times patient with my Spanish. Many are Mapuche, whose native language is not even Spanish. The Mapuche stood up to the Spanish for over 400 years, and speak Mapudungun. The organization gets its funding from some big organizations around the world. Ford Foundation and some Kennedy Foundations are just some.